Pates

Oh definitely not captain, co captain, or vice. But I’d have him in the leadership group next year.

Fair point, his comments regarding this game I think mainly centred around the fact that we were playing into Sydney’s hands and that when momentum went against you it was up to the leaders to wrestle that momentum back or at least into a stalemate. Hes truckloads better than the likes of Matthews and Walls. Matthews doesn’t get the modern game and it’s grating to here him try to rationalise it.

These last two rounds Hogan has to stand up and be counted, right now he's the epitome of a Melbourne player. A rock star vs lower teams, goes to water against the good teams.

I'd consider throwing Brayshaw in there as well.

Agreed, they said it on the commentary as well. Something along the lines of "surely they know there isn't much time left" we played that last minute as if we'd already lost. I'm not the biggest fan of Jimmy Bartel's special comments but the whole second half he sounded baffled as to what we were doing, and it wasn't like what he was saying was anything groundbreaking but it really seemed to show that when we are down we seem to become nothing more than headless chickens.

Same games total scoring shots for vs against. Melbourne Scoring shots: 132 Opposition Scoring shots: 118 Only one game the opposition had more scoring shots (Saints, 2 extra shots), and Port in rnd 14 we had the same number of shots. This has been the year of missed chances, and ultimate frustration for the fans.

What’s really grinding my gears is that we’ve come so far and yet we still manage to be the laughing stock of the competition. Now I think it’s partially because the media keeps building us up as contenders when very few actually following us never said anything like it. But I’m sick of us being laughed at.

Out: Hunt (Inj), Spargo, Pederson In: Hibberd, Kent, Melksham Despite the result we were accurate goal kicking away from winning. We played stupid football and the frustrating thing is that we only lost by 9 points. I don’t know if that says more about them or us. Spargo needs a rest or to be dropped, he put in a shocker and it’s time. Pederson goes for balance. I’m desperate for us to win next week, I really don’t want it to come down to the final round....again. ?

Ummm why the hell didn’t any of his teammates stick up for him???

Hunt goes after his injury, he was disappointing anyway but I feel he would’ve been given a go next week anyway. Spargo needs to be dropped IMO, his 2nd half of the year hasn’t been good and tonight was the final chance he gets. He’ll be back but he needs time at Casey. Melksham and Hibberd should be back which we desperately need. Hibberd’s class in the back line and Melksham’s delivery into 50 would’ve got us over the line vs Swans. I’m sure of it.

Is it someone's job to make sure EVERY PLAYER has a solid set shot routine? Spargo looks like a deer in headlights when he's about to have a set shot, I don't care if he has to go back 30 meters and do it on a run he needs a routine. He rushes everything, he looks like he's barely breathing. I get that he's a kid but this should go for everyone at the club.

There was a lot let go tonight, at times on both sides although the third quarter really felt in the Swans favour. There were some downright puzzling ones where we would lay perfect tackles and not be rewarded while our guys would get zero time to get rid of it or would have their heads taken off and get pinged for HTB. Not the worst I've seen but it wasn't great, and yes Nicholls was the worst of them.

Thinking more about it what struck me was when Sydney had the ball, even when we were coming for them in the final quarter, they didn't panic. Whereas save for a couple of players like Salem, Lewis, and Jetta we were always worried about turning it over so they reverted to the "well might as well kick it long" mantra. Sydney new how to use the wide expanses of the G, working angles and making multiple leads to create space and movement, particularly in the third quarter. But that was also evident when we got a look at goal, almost every shot looked hurried with no confidence. It was only until we were "out of the game" that we seemed to be released of that pressure, which immediately came back when we were in the game. What does that say about our players mindsets? Should we be bringing in some hypnotist to break them out of this self destructive attitude?

Couldn’t believe that when the game was there to be won we didn’t play accountable on him. Ridiculous. Swans actually laid out opportunities for us and we simply didn’t take them.

I was only able to watch the second half, we actually could’ve won that. We dominated the whole last quarter and it wasn’t until 6min left that we actually started using our chances. Stupid footy. Very stupid. I don’t know if it was the game plan to bomb it in but if you’re going to do that at least put it to the forwards advantage. Harmes played well from what I saw, Oliver did as he always does, Gawn dominant in the ruck but they were sharking his taps at times. But HFF and forward line is where things broke down, very getable chances gone begging. We must address this issue, for one we’re are letting good chances fall by the wayside, but we’re also allowing teams to set up from the defence and make us pay.

Our own worst enemies tonight. If we could’ve just taken a couple of our chances early this quarter we’d be within touching distance.

Pederson kicks the goal but Oliver being manhandled, what the hell do we have to do for a free kick?

That bald maggot in the middle is giving us nothing and giving the Swans everything.

We need to up our pressure, they’re down on rotations on the bench. We need to stretch them physically.

True and they also did get an armchair ride against us in the 3rd quarter vs us. At least 4 clear HTB decisions (two against Dusty) that were not paid that cost us goals and momentum.

Tigers is a surprise, most teams that are near the top are generally there because of hostile crowd noises. The tiger army is as hostile as you can get.

If we make the finals from here than anyone that doesn't think we deserve to be there is a moron. Toughest run home of anybody. Much like the two Adelaide games I feel like the players having been eyeballing this one from a distance.

I feel like the club has finally got to a point where the betting odds are no longer a "thing". It used to be the mo,net we were favourites it'd be spoken about in the media and discussed with the players and no matter how much they wanted to say "oh we don't take any notice of that" it definitely seemed to play at least a small part in their mindset. The players would be dead set idiots to think we're in the box seat for this game. It's going to be tough, the Swans know what finals footy is and I'm expecting them to bring that sort of challenge.

The changes are very interesting, I feel like Hunt will take up Smiths place in the line up and be given a bit of license to do what he did so well last year (though I also hope they’ve told him to lower the eyes). Vince’s place in the team might be creatively covered through rotations while Pederson could provide a marking option on the HFF. I also think that getting Pedders in is about giving Max less rucking duties to give him an easy week on the park. I can picture Max spending a little more time forward. Whenever Pederson is rucking our onballers are going to have to work extra hard to win it, though having Pederson in the ruck last year did prove to be beneficial at times where he’d be more mobile than the traditional ruckmen. Of course these are just my thoughts, I could be completely wrong (probably will be). Very interesting week coming up.

No Melksham is a bugger, having him miss vs GC wasn’t ever really going to trouble us but against Sydney he’s a big out. Hopefully Gawn is fine to go, our track record of naming players and then actually playing is pretty sound. I swear Sydney seem to have this knack of getting us when we’re at our weakest. Assuming Gawn is right to go I picture one change, Hunt for Smith. Would love to see Hunt regain some confidence, he was a massive fan favourite last year! EDIT: if Gawn is a late out then Pedersen gets his shot.